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 #17 (permalink) Sat Jul 15, 2006 0:47 am Manageress? |
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| Conchita wrote: |
| Jamie (K) wrote: |
In German and Spanish you mark almost everything for gender, but in English we don't.
(...) people who speak continental European languages feel an ingrained need for everything to have a gender. |
Curiously, so does Mr Bush, at least when referring to a nation: for him it's a 'she'.
Another proof that gender is about everywhere? |
When English speakers do this it's because they're speaking allegorically, or whatever. That gender's not built into the language, and it's relatively uncommon. Non-native-speaking authors of ESL textbooks seem to be in love with that kind of usage and cover it more than native-speaking authors do. This gives people in their countries an exaggerated view of its importance, and the misimpression that it's grammatical and not symbolic. |
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Jamie (K)
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 6552
Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
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| #18 (permalink) Sat Jul 15, 2006 8:17 am Manageress? |
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| Conchita wrote: |
Curiously, so does Mr Bush, at least when referring to a nation: for him it's a 'she'.
Another proof that gender is about everywhere? |
Hi Conchita
Wouldn't you agree that in English there are very few nouns referring to "things" that are sometimes given a gender? Though there may be one or two more, the only ones that come to my mind at the moment are ship, car and country. For me, Dubya's reference to a country as a "she" is nothing more than an example of one of the handful of "standard exceptions" and wouldn't be an indication that gender is ingrained or "everywhere" in English with reference to things.
One thing that is a never-ending source of entertainment for me is hearing my German friends refer to (for example) a PC as "he" . It's always comical to hear people refer to things as a "he" or a "she". In addition, sometimes my students come up with their own words, accidently taking the gender issue to an extreme: "Pharmasister". Now, which gender is that??? :lol:
Amy
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Yankee
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Location: USA
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| #19 (permalink) Sat Jul 15, 2006 9:18 am Ess |
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I'm sorry. But everything here is quite simple in comparison with Vietnamese. :lol: (may be with Chinese also)
We have different words for a man. It must be known that he is old, older, in the same age , younger, young in relation with speaker. It's extremly complicated.
And it's very interesting when a young man fall in love with a older woman. He must use different words before and after he receives the agreement from the woman. |
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 Gianglt
You can meet me at english-test.net
Joined: 21 Jun 2006
Posts: 55
Location: Vietnam
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| #20 (permalink) Sun Jul 16, 2006 0:09 am Education in English? |
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In my language you have to say things like: teacher-woman, or doctor-woman, because there is nothing else would refer to his (or her ) gender.
It's not a big price for not saying "he (or she)" and "his (or her)" all the given times.
I don't know the other Europien countries Jamie mentioned the time before, but in Hungarian it's easy to differ friend from girlfriend. If it's a girl friend, but not like a girlfriend, you say: "She's A girlfriend of mine", but if she's more than that, you say : "She's THE girlfriend of mine". (Unless you got more of them. then you have to use the first, so it could cause trouble in using the language properly as well :) )
As the saying goes: A girlfriend is not a girlfriend, unless she's asking you not to call her a girlfriend, but a friend of a girl.
( If it doesn't make sense to you, don't worry, this special saying needs about fifty years thinking time to change your life for good)
See you
Spencer |
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Spencer
I'm here quite often ;-)
Joined: 07 Feb 2006
Posts: 326
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| #21 (permalink) Sun Jul 16, 2006 6:16 am Education in English? |
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| spencer wrote: |
| In my language you have to say things like: teacher-woman, or doctor-woman, because there is nothing else would refer to his (or her ) gender. |
And don't forget "comrade-woman"! |
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Jamie (K)
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 6552
Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
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| #22 (permalink) Sun Jul 16, 2006 9:02 am Comrade-in-arms |
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sister-in-arms... :-)
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Tamara
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Joined: 25 May 2006
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| Trouble in pronouncing English words | Beer in Slovakia |
